Modern gas turbine aircraft engines have a gearbox that is mounted on their external cases. The gearbox is generally positioned under the engine's core or fan case and uses power from the engine to drive the major accessories needed for engine functions such as generators for electricity, pumps for circulating fluids and heat exchangers for cooling oil or heating fuel. The accessories are frequently mounted on the gearbox.
The main gearbox of modern turbofan engines such as the Model PW4000, manufactured by the Pratt & Whitney Division of United Technologies Corporation, is mounted within the engine core cowl and is driven by an angle gearbox through a towershaft from the high-pressure compressor. The accessory drives for various components, such as the hydraulic pump, are mounted on the gearbox. The main gearbox drives the fuel pump, scavenge pump, the electrical generator for the electronic engine control, external deoiler, hydraulic pump, and the integrated drive generator (for aircraft electricity).
Various mounting arrangements are used to mount the gearbox to the external case. The gearbox is often connected to the engine case at two or more locations along the length of the gearbox. For example, a forward V-shaped link may be used to fasten the front of the gearbox to the engine. A plurality of side hanger links may be used on either side of the gearbox housing to stabilize the gearbox. Further, a mounting plate may also be used to fasten the gearbox housing to the engine case to provide alignment of the gearbox with respect to the engine case and prevent undesirable movement of the gearbox relative to the engine. Thus, the gearbox may be connected to the engine by a hard mount, that is, a connection which is essentially inflexible and immobile such that case deflections are transmitted to the gearbox. This hard mount arrangement does impose undesirable loads on the mounting hardware and on the gearbox itself.
One problem caused by mounting the gearbox to the engine case is subjecting the gearbox to high loads caused by rotor imbalances. Severe rotor imbalance can occur in an engine, particularly after a fan blade breaks off from the rotor assembly. One cause of fan blade loss is impact with foreign objects, such as birds, hailstones or other objects which, on occasion, are ingested into the engine. The detached fan blade is thrown outwardly and passes through the fan case, but is typically caught by the fabric wraps in the fan containment case assembly. Blade loss produces an imbalance in the rotor and causes the rotor shaft to deflect radially outwardly. The more the rotor deflects, the greater is the radial load on the rotor bearing supports.
The rotor imbalance loads are transmitted from the bearing supports to the engine cases and ultimately to the gearbox fastened to the engine case. The gearbox is forced to move with the engine as the gearbox is fastened to the engine cases. Blade loss loads have been traditionally underestimated with respect to gearbox structural design. If the vibratory loads transmitted to the gearbox are high, the gearbox may not be able to sustain the imbalance loads and this may result in the failure of the gearbox housing itself, and often the liberation of the accessories themselves from the gearbox.
When the gearbox housing breaks, oil from within the gearbox may splash over the hot cases of the engine and immediately ignite, causing a fire. The release of oil from within the gearbox also potentially damages the internal components of the gearbox as they would have to operate without lubrication. If a fuel-bearing accessory breaks off from the gearbox or pulls apart, spilled fuel may cause a fire. If the generator pulls off, a very large component is liberated that can potentially break through the engine cowling itself and ultimately hit an aircraft control surface.
Consequently, gearbox housings have been made thicker, the mount points stronger, and the accessory vendor design requirements have been increased. However, these prior art solutions have resulted in substantially heavier hardware which in turn has resulted in the gearbox mount loads to increase. In turn, the efficiency of the engines is adversely impacted by heavier hardware.
It is also known to use a mounting arrangement having some flexibility or mobility to absorb energy and thus prevent the gearbox from engine case deflections and distortions. However, the flexible mounting arrangements of the prior art adversely compromise the life of the hardware as the elastomeric materials used to introduce the desired flexibility harden when cycled in a high temperature environment.
Thus, the challenge for modern gas turbine engines, during high rotor imbalance events, is the limiting of damage to the gearbox mounts and the gearbox itself.